The 24-year-old second-year player from Pittsburgh we all know made a routine tackle on Bengals’ receiver Tee Higgins with just over six minutes left in the first quarter. Hamlin stood up, took a couple of steps, then immediately collapsed from cardiac arrest. Doctors and medical staff at Paycor Stadium had to resuscitate Hamlin’s heart on the field, performing CPR for over nine minutes.
The game was suspended, then postponed just after 10:00 PM, eastern time. Hamlin was transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center just a few miles away from the stadium, where he remains in critical condition. Thankfully as of Wednesday morning, statements coming from the family report that Hamlin’s vitals are approaching normal, while his oxygen levels are improving. However, none of these reports can confirm if Hamlin is breathing on his own, which is the one update we all are waiting on…what level of damage to his other organs may have occurred while he was in arrest?
Hamlin’s charity toy drive for Chasing M’s posted a goal of $2,500.00 just before Christmas. As of Wednesday morning, the total is over $6 million. Veteran professional wrestler Chris Jericho (real name Chris Irvine), whose father Ted Irvine was a member of the New York Rangers for six seasons (1969-75) contributed $10,000.00 alone.
We have seen players collapse on the field previously, but none of this magnitude. Reggie Lewis collapsed in the middle of a playoff game on April 29, 1993 while with the Boston Celtics. Lewis returned to the Celtic bench, but was not put back in the game. Sadly, Lewis passed away on June 27 of that year during an offseason workout.
NHL players Rich Peverley and Jay Bouwmeester collapsed on the bench during a game. Peverly was a member of the Dallas Stars when his incident occurred in March of 2014. Bouwmeester had just finished a shift in a game with the St. Louis Blues in February of 2020. The Blues were in the middle of a TV timeout, where the only people to have seen the incident were a small portion of fans in the arena. It would be the final game of Bouwmeester’s career, retiring in January of 2021. Peverley formally retired in September 2015, but is currently the Director of Player Personnel for the Stars.
Hamlin’s incident was seen live by 65,515 in attendance, with millions more watching at home on ESPN and ABC. The stadium remained silent for more than an hour, with only an interruption for fans to applaud in respect as the Bills returned to the locker room after Hamlin was taken from the field and stadium in an ambulance.
The only thing I could really equate this too was former two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Dan Wheldon’s fatal crash during the IZOD IndyCar World Championship race in 2011. Wheldon was involved in a crash just 10 laps into the race, where his car went airborne, hit the retaining fence, then came down on the cockpit. The race was halted, then eventually canceled once the news of his tragic passing was made official. Drivers returned to their cars for a three-lap salute nearly two hours after the incident.
Take the Skip Bayless tweet from late Monday evening out of the equation, when he discussed the ramifications of what this now does to the final week of the NFL regular season. Now that the final weekend is approaching, the conversation of what happens to the game that could decide home field advantage in the AFC playoffs, not to mention at least three playoff positions can be broached.
No, what truly disgusted me was a video I came across on YouTube while pondering whether for even journalistic purposes I should go back and watch the incident. The video posed the conspiracy theory that the entire incident was staged to make the Bills a sympathetic choice to win the Super Bowl next month. The name of the channel was “Jake The Asshole.”
What bothers me is the video has over 100,000 views and 1,300 likes. I guess no one bothered to inform Jake that the nozzle you pump gas with does not double as a water fountain. This was the first time I ever reported a YouTube video for content violations, in hopes it is forced to be removed.
I’m waiting for Hamlin to rejoin his teammates on the sidelines at Highmark Stadium in Buffalo or State Farm Stadium in Phoenix before the end of the playoffs this season. When 3 stands with the Bills Mafia, the entire NFL will be standing with him, including the players and staff on the opposing sideline.
-JC24